Week 2, Computer Aided Design

This week assignment tasks are

To model a possible final project by Drawing or Render or Animate or Simulate, etc

1. 2D and 2.5D design - Raster

I tried using GIMP and Krita to draw some simple lines to construct some simple lines. Below are the results.


Download the Gimp Drawing here.


Download the Krita Drawing here.

As the drawings had shown, they are more suitable for sketching purposes design.

2. 2D and 2.5D design - Vector

Next, I used FreeCAD to construct lines but I find the application is more suitable for 3D design than 2D. What's more, simple animation can be done on FreeCAD. However, you will need some knowledge python programming language in order to work on the animation. Below is a Youtube video done by Javier Martínez who created the gear animation


FreeCAD Gear Animation


FreeCAD Drawing

I also tried using LibreCAD to construct simple a simple rectangle. It is quite similar to AutoCad but not as intuitive. The offset and trim functions are not easy to use in relations to selecting entities. It is not always positively selected and that lead you to second guessing yourself. The screen shot below illustrated how the fillet wrong was constructed due to poor indication of whether the entity was or not selected.

I came across an interesting Inkscape youtude tutorial by Nick Saporito on how to design sphere icon and logo. Decided to try it out and the results are shown below.

Cutaway Sphere

3. 3D Design

Using the AutoCAD 123D Design is really straight forward and easy to use. It can do simple and basic shapes which is a good place for beginners to start off. Once the drawing is completed, it not only can exported it as a .stl and .obj for 3D print, it can also send the file to meshmixer for further processes.

I did a 3D drawing below to practice on functions like Merge, Subtract and Intersect commands with no specific shape in mind. Therefore did not add in the file for download. It would be better if one practice hands on with 123D.



I would highly recommend this application for use when constructing basic shapes to even more complex design like a spring.


123D Spring

4. 3D Design

Tried my hands on Blender. It was very complicated but very interesting.



I managed to create 3 gears as shown above and animated it to rotate by following a youtube tutorial by tutor4u.

The animation was a 2 gears type.

Seriously considering looking deeper into Blender if opporunity arises because it will make my work even more interesting. However, this blender would required a considerable period of time to learn and understand it.

My Thoughts

I would still use AutoCad to draw my parts design which I am more familiar with it. Learning to use a new drawing software at this juncture would be a nightmare. However, I would use the 123D to design parts for 3D print as it would be easier than using AutoCad Inventor. Having spend some time with these softwares, I decided to divert and do another project because of new avenues for development.
This is initial sketch up of my project on Soil Dampness monitoring. This is to help better managed my plants at home.


I hope to develop this project further and add more stuff from what I will learn in the duration of this course.